Almost ten years after the diesel manipulations at Volkswagen have been exposed, the public prosecutor’s office wants prison terms for the scandal, which in their view. According to the law enforcement officers, probation is not sufficient for three of the four defendants, as they made clear in their final plea. The former managers and engineers are guilty of fraud. A long-time head of VW drive technology, a former chief of development of the core brand VW and a former head of the diesel engine development described the Braunschweig public prosecutor as a perpetrator and demanded three and four years in prison. In a former department head for diesel emissions cleaning, the accusers see more of an assistant who should be sentenced to two years. In the more than four -hour final plea on Friday, the prosecutors referred to the men of fraud with manipulated software in millions of cars. Three of the accused were responsible for damage of 3.15 billion euros and 3.65 million cars. Because the fourth defendant was added later, the numbers for him are limited to 1.14 billion euros and 1.49 million affected vehicles. These came out on the street a multiple of the permitted values for harmful nitrogen oxides. Exchange of the scandal almost ten years ago trigger for this huge procedure was now almost ten years ago: In September 2015, in the United States, VW had been used on a large scale that recognized a deception and only then the full cleaning of the emissions was activated worldwide as a “diesel gate” known and fell into a deep crisis. The result was countless processes and costs, which the group estimates at more than 30 billion euros, and more on the subject of the subject was planned that the former Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn was on the dock. However, his process part was separated before the start in September 2021 for health reasons. At the start of his own procedure in September 2024, he denied the allegations and rejected any guilt for the diesel affair. After an accident, however, the criminal trial against him was postponed again. From then on, the defenders are with their plea, which should also take several hours each.
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